6 Tricks That Helped Me Triple My SaaS' Growth Rate

Talk given at Microconf 2014

Transcript

1. 6 TRICKS THAT HELPED
   ME TRIPLE MY SAAS'
   GROWTH RATE
   @brennandunn
   

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2. I’M A HACKER
   &
   I LIKE GROWTH
   

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4. I’M A SOLOPRENEUR
   •Planscope (SaaS)
   •“Double Your Freelancing
   Rate” (Book)
   •“Sell Yourself Online: The
   Blueprint” (Book)
   •The Freelancers Guild
   (Membership Site / Course)
   •Consultancy Masterclass
   (Workshop)
   •The Business of Freelancing
   (Podcast)
   •Freelancers Weekly
   (Newsletter)
   

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7. WE’RE ALL HERE
   TO GROW
   

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9. WE’RE ALL HERE TO
   MAKE MORE MONEY
   

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11. “HOW BIG IS
    YOUR TEAM?”
    

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12. LET’S TALK ABOUT 6
    THINGS YOU CAN DO
    TO SPEND MORE TIME
    WITH THESE PEOPLE*
    * Your goal will (and, uh, should) be
    something other than the three people
    displayed to the right :-)
    

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13. THE ALL IMPORTANT
    SALES FUNNEL
    Visitors Trials Activations Paid
    

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14. PAID CUSTOMER
    CHURN
    April June August
    

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15. IDENTIFY & TWEAK
    POINTS OF
    OPTIMIZATION
    

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16. 1 REAQUIRING
    DRIVE-BYS
    

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17. GOAL: DRIVE INTERESTED PEOPLE BACK TO YOU
    

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18. “GOOGLE, HOW DO
    I RAISE MY RATES?”
    

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19. “GOOGLE, I NEED
    PROJECT MANAGEMENT
    SOFTWARE.”
    

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20. AVOID “ONE SIZE FITS
    ALL” RETARGETING
    

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21. MARKETING SITE +
    DISPLAY NETWORK
    BLOG +
    FACEBOOK
    

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22. RETARGETING IS MORE THAN JUST
    CONVERTING VISITORS
    • Invitation to join the founder for 1-on-1 onboarding
    • RSVP for an upcoming webinar or mastermind
    • Videos or blog posts of success stories or usage guides
    • Product updates
    • Compliment and reinforce your trial lifecycle
    communication
    

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23. 2 SEGMENTING
    

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24. GOAL: MAKE THIS A PRODUCT-FOR-ONE
    

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25. “I own a development consultancy, and we
    bill $10,000 a week.”
    Lifecycle emails
    “When I ran my
    consultancy, I…”
    Onboarding
    Sample project with
    development-y tasks,
    rate of $10k/week
    In-app Messaging
    Reporting verbiage,
    button labels, etc.
    

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26. FURTHER WAYS TO INDIVIDUALIZE
    • Listed in a 3rd party integration marketplace? You have
    referrer data — auto-default to linking with the referring tool.
    • Create specialized landing pages for each persona. “I run a 20
    person agency… there’s no WAY a tool that works for
    freelancers could help me.”
    • Figure out how, why, and where they first showed up on your
    site, and profile them for later. (<— Master-level)
    

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27. TAKEAWAY
    A perfectly placed “If”
    condition can go a long way
    toward improving
    conversions.
    

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28. 3 TRIAL SCORES
    

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29. GOAL: LEARN + OPTIMIZE OUTREACH
    

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30. WHAT’S COMMON
    ABOUT PEOPLE WHO
    BUY?
    

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31. PEOPLE WHO BUY PLANSCOPE
    USUALLY…
    •Have created a project
    •Have invited a client to join their project
    •(Team accounts) Have invited their team members
    •Have integrated with a 3rd party invoicing app
    •Have logged 20+ hours of time
    

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34. BUYING
    LOST NEEDS A PUSH
    90%
    60%
    30%
    WHAT CAUSED
    THESE SCORES…?
    

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35. YOUR #1 JOB IS TO
    NUDGE PEOPLE
    TOWARD CONVERTING
    

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36. TAKEAWAY
    Write and test your
    automated emails inside
    Gmail before putting them
    inside a cron job.
    

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37. 4 EDUCATE
    EVERYWHERE
    

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38. GOAL: FOCUS ON THE CUSTOMER, NOT THE PRODUCT
    Your customer’s business
    Your product
    

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39. “Click this button. Now enter a price
    in here. Then, click…”
    “Here are some tricks you can use to
    help you win this new project…”
    VS
    

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40. SCREENSHOT OF CUSTOMER.IO
    EMAIL
    “You’ve just created your first estimate. My goal with this email is to
    help you raise the likelihood that your client will accept it 2-3x.”
    

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41. CELEBRATE YOUR CUSTOMERS’ SUCCESSES (AND GATHER
    SOME GREAT TESTIMONIALS ALONG THE WAY…)
    

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42. TAKEAWAY
    What actions ALIGN with
    why someone actually
    wants your product?
    

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43. 5 DO AN EXIT
    INTERVIEW
    

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44. GOAL: GO BEYOND WHAT FUNNELS CAN TELL US
    

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45. THE NOT-SO-OBVIOUS
    REASON TO COLLECT CREDIT
    CARDS UPFRONT:
    REQUIRES PEOPLE TO CANCEL
    

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49. PRODUCT ENVIRONMENTAL
    • Doesn’t do X
    • Too confusing to get setup
    • Too expensive
    • It kept breaking
    • My client wouldn’t use it
    • My team wouldn’t use it
    WHY DO PEOPLE CANCEL?
    • I got a job! At GitHub!
    • We stopped consulting
    • I wasn’t using it*
    • I ran out of client work*
    • Went out of business*
    

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50. TAKEAWAY
    People are at the high water
    mark of their emotional
    entanglement with your
    product when they cancel.
    

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51. 6 WAYS TO
    INCREASE LTV
    

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52. THE GOAL OF THE TRIAL TO
    ESTABLISH PRODUCT FIT.
    WHEN DONE, CHARGE.
    

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53. $3,216
    

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54. April May June July August September
    Freelancer Plan Likely To Churn
    

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55. Reacquire Traffic
    Segment Trials To Personalize
    Score To Learn & Optimize
    Enrich The Whole Customer
    Discover Why People Cancel
    Increase LTV
    Increase Visitor -> Trial
    Increase Trial -> Activation
    Increase Activation -> Paid
    Increase Activation -> Paid
    Increase Activation -> Paid
    Decrease Churn
    Decrease Churn
    

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56. Reacquire Traffic
    Segment Trials To Personalize
    Score To Learn & Optimize
    Enrich The Whole Customer
    Discover Why People Cancel
    Increase LTV
    +1% Visitor -> Trial
    +15% Trial -> Activation
    +7% Activation -> Paid
    +7% Activation -> Paid
    +7% Activation -> Paid
    Decrease Churn
    Decrease Churn
    

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57. +33%
    PAID ACCOUNTS
    

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58. LOOK FOR REPEATABLE
    QUESTS THAT GET YOU TO
    THAT NEXT LEVEL FASTER.
    

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